A judge has issued a warning to youngsters about carrying knives after a man was jailed for affray.

Joel Anthony Reed, 20 from Croydon, was sentenced to eight months in a young offender institution after he admitted being involved in a fight in Weymouth town centre during which he pulled out a knife.

As he sentenced Reed at Dorchester Crown Court, Judge Christopher Leigh said youngsters should be aware of the ‘terrible’ consequences that can result from carrying a knife. He said that anyone who pulls one out in anger can expect a jail sentence.

Angela England, prosecuting, said Reed was caught on CCTV getting into a fight with another man – who police were unable to identify – in Weymouth town centre in the early hours of October 12 last year.

The court was told that CCTV images showed Reed punching another man before pulling out a knife and flicking it open.

The footage showed that he didn’t use the knife but landed several blows on the other man with his fists, the court was told.

Miss England said: “This defendant is the first person to land a punch, he appears to lunge at the other man.

“The defendant then withdraws from his underwear a knife, which appears to be a lock or folding knife.”

Miss England said that when police arrived following the incident Reed fled and police were unable to track him down for about two months.

When he was interviewed on December 23 he said he had the knife for opening bottles, the court was told.

Clodaghmuire Callinan, mitigating, said that Reed, of Meadvale Road, Croydon, regularly visited Weymouth where he had family and friends.

She said that on the night in question he was carrying a Swiss army knife that he used to carry regularly.

She said he had no intention to use the knife and was shocked by his own behaviour.

Ms Callinan said Reed had been provoked by another man when he was in Dusk nightclub earlier in the night and when they met outside later the man was threatening and racially abusive towards him.

She said: “When the violence occurred he did pull the knife and he did wave it but he put it immediately away and he did not use it.

“He pulled it out instinctively, realised what he had done and put it away.

“He cannot believe that was his first instinct to do that.”

Ms Callinan added: “He does accept full responsibility for what he has done and doesn’t seek to minimise that what he has done was completely and utterly wrong.”

Judge Leigh said that he accepted Reed had been subject to ‘verbal aggression and offensive remarks’, but said that was no excuse for pulling a knife.

He said: “Anybody who draws a knife in public in an aggressive situation is bound to receive a custodial sentence.

“We all know the terrible things that happen with knives and we all know that it’s an affliction running through our society.”